Nancy Kaffer: What was Benny Napoleon thinking?

4:46 PM, January 2, 2013

Benny Napoleon, shown in 2009, was aiming his comments at fellow mayoral candidate Mike Duggan, a longtime Livonia resident who moved to Palmer Woods last year as a precursor to his mayoral run. / William Archie/Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press Editorial Writer

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It's hard to know what Detroit mayoral candidate Benny Napoleon was thinking when he told a reporter that Palmer Woods, one of the city's most stable neighborhoods, wasn't really a part of Detroit.

But by 1 p.m. the next day, Napoleon clearly realized he'd made a mistake.

"Palmer Woods is not Detroit? Nothing is further from the truth," Napoleon wrote on Facebook, sans any explanation of why he'd said just the opposite the day before. "It is one of our prized neighborhoods. However, the Palmer Woods experience is far different from that of the average Detroiter's neighborhood experience. ... Our city won't be transformed until the Palmer Woods experience is one that is shared by all Detroiters."

The Wayne County Sheriff's comments were aimed at fellow candidate Mike Duggan, a long-time Livonia resident who moved to Palmer Woods last year as a precursor to his mayoral run. (Duggan and candidate Lisa Howze, by the way, were scrambling to take advantage of Napoleon's gaffe today, with Facebook postings of their own denouncing Napoleon and praising Palmer Woods.)

By extension, Napoleon's comments about Palmer Woods apply to every Detroit neighborhood that's not actively declining. If Palmer Woods isn't part of Detroit -- or is atypical -- it's a fair bet that Indian Village isn't in Napoleon's Detroit, either.

Whether Napoleon's comments will be damaging to his campaign in the long-term remains to be seen. Northwest Detroit is a significant voting block, and it's generally not a great idea to offend the folks most likely to 1) show up at the polls and 2) bankroll any serious mayoral campaign.

Old-school, us-versus-them politicking certainly didn't work for 2009 mayoral candidate Tom Barrow, who went all-out to paint Detroit Mayor Dave Bing as a carpetbagger who couldn't be trusted, and lost decisively.

And then there's this: Napoleon is falling into a dangerous trap -- the impulse to define Detroit, and being a Detroiter, as struggling. Suffering. That's not a good look for any city.

Will the Palmer Woods gaffe scuttle Napoleon's campaign? Probably not. But it does show a lack of verbal discipline that should be worrisome for Napoleon's minders.

Not to mention a lack of understanding of Detroit's real problems, one of which is the declining number of middle-class residents and subsequent erosion of the tax base.

In Napoleon's world, life in Palmer Woods apparently means freedom from crime, high car insurance rates, abandoned houses and dwindling city services. Palmer Woods, he implies, floats above the fray, disconnected from the struggles of the average Detroiter.

But that's not really the case. Palmer Woods residents, too, have to deal with vacant and foreclosed homes, with high insurance rates, with the threat of crime, and with high tax rates for poor city services.

"We have all of the same challenges, but we have advantages," said Barbara Barefield, a 25-year resident of Palmer Woods. "But it doesn't mean we're not a part of Detroit."

Palmer Woods residents pay the city's 86-mill property tax, and the city's 2.4% residential income tax. They also pay for private security and snow removal. The ability to fund those services is an advantage, to be sure, but having to do so is a necessity that their socioeconomic peers outside the city don't have to worry about.

Racially, Palmer Woods mirrors the city's demographics. It's about 90% black and 10% white. And like most of Detroit's so-called rich neighborhoods, Palmer Woods residents are affluent only in comparison to the rest of Detroit. Among the four U.S. Census tracts comprising Palmer Woods, the median household income ranges from $24,318 to $85,417, according to information compiled by Data Driven Detroit. Citywide, Detroit's median household income is $27,862. But compare Palmer Woods with Birmingham, where the median household income is $100,473, or Huntington Woods, where it's $109,946, and it becomes clear that Palmer Woods is a middle-class enclave -- the kind Detroit desperately needs more of.